Viagra restrictions move to SC House committee

A state House panel approved a bill Tuesday that would restrict access to medicines that treat erectile dysfunction.

Sponsored by state Rep. Mia McLeod, D-Richland, the bill is intended as a critique of efforts by the Legislature’s GOP majority to restrict women's access to abortion.

“This bill really isn't about erectile dysfunction, but it is about gender equity,” McLeod said Wednesday before the panel, exclusively made up of Democrats, OK’d the bill. “Government has no place making decisions for women or men when it comes to abortion or erectile dysfunction.”

McLeod, who is running for the S.C. Senate against a Republican opponent, introduced the bill earlier this year after a GOP-led effort to ban abortion at 20 weeks and later of pregnancy gained steam.

The abortion legislation has passed the House and Senate. It now is awaiting final approval in the House before heading to the governor’s desk.

McLeod’s erectile dysfunction bill next goes before the Democratic-controlled Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs Committee, which, historically, has been controlled by the minority party. That committee likely will send the bill to the full House, where McLeod said she expects the majority-male, Republican-controlled body to kill the bill.

The legislation would restrict access to medicines to treat erectile dysfunction, such as Viagra, by requiring:

▪  A sworn affidavit from a sexual partner detailing an incident of erectile dysfunction in the previous 90 days

▪  A report from a sexual therapist ruling out psychological conditions as the cause of the erectile dysfunction, and

▪  A cardiac stress test and report indicating the patient’s heart can handle sex.

The prescribing doctor also would have to provide a written statement explaining why the drug is necessary and notify the patient in writing about the risks of taking erectile dysfunction drugs.

Men also would have to wait 24 hours to get the drugs, just as women seeking an abortion must receive information and wait 24 hours to have the procedure.

McLeod said she realized her legislation was causing a lot of jokes, but she did not intend it that way.

“If we are genuinely concerned about women's sexual and reproductive health ... then we should be equally concerned about the sexual and reproductive health of men,” she told the committee. “The requirements (in the bill) were intentionally ridiculous because I think that is what the requirements are like for women in this state.”

Only state Rep. Justin Bamberg, D-Bamberg, spoke in support of the bill. No one spoke against it.

State Rep. Kit Spires, a Lexington Republican and pharmacist, came to the hearing to answer questions about the impact of the bill. Spires said he was concerned some aspects of the bill could violate federal privacy laws protecting patients.

McLeod said those concerns could be addressed when the bill reaches the full committee.

Regardless of the outcome, McLeod said the legislation has achieved its purpose.

The goal, she said, was “to broaden the discussion, expose the hypocrisy and, ultimately, if I had my way, to get government out of these very important and very private decisions.”

This story was originally published April 20, 2016 at 6:01 PM with the headline "Viagra restrictions move to SC House committee."